Skype founders to launch web TV

In 2003, Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom launched Skype, an online communication tool that has forced some of the world’s largest telecommunications groups to rethink their business models. Now they are hoping to do the same for television.

Skype founders are close to launching a global broadband television service offering "the best of the internet with the best of TV".

Janus Friis and Niklas Zennström said the service, codenamed The Venice Project, will offer "near high definition programmes" which users can personalise or discuss with others.

Unlike other video-on-demand websites like YouTube, the Venice Project will offer channels and "high-quality and full-screen video", Friis told the Financial Times.

He said that the peer-to-peer technology used in the service would make it possible to serve “tens of millions of users”.

A source close to Warner Music confirmed that it was using the service to create channels for some of its artists, including Paris Hilton.

The service is expected to launch next year. It has reportedly attracted a few big-name channels,but the company would not dislose its partners.